The Flores Uprising
The Flores Uprising (730KF-731KF) was a political reactionary insurrection against the Kymurian government primarily consisting of Flores royalists, conservatives and the more traditional fragments of The Angelican Church, along with numerous other interest groups. The Florite Uprising lasted a little over a year before it was finally crushed by Kymuria. Background The last king of the great Flores Dynasty, King Attin III, had instructed a nobility council to select a new candidate for the throne, since he had been left heirless. Upon King Attin III's death, the nobility council rather controversially chose Cyroth, who had previously put an end to the hegemony of east coast Kymurian nobility by abolishing the Act Of Eastern Trade Accordance which, had prior to its withdrawal, greatly benefited eastern Kymurian noblemen, who happened to primarily be conservative in their outlook. Conservatives were not the only group angered by the appointment of Cyroth, Flores royalists claimed that the Flores Dynasty could in fact continue, while King Attin III had been left heirless the Flores Dynasty still survived in the form of his nephews and nieces from his sister's line. Flores royalists supported the claim of Duke Tymon Flores nephew of the last Flores king. The coalition was commanded by Duke Tymon Flores, the goals for each faction within the uprising varied but nonetheless all parties came together under the uniting factor which was the restoration of the Flores Dynasty. The Uprising Tymon spent the first months of 730 purchasing weapons, encouraged by recent Kymurian instability the Hokasan government promised to provide limited support. This comprised 700 volunteers from a Xiphron Brigade and two transport ships. After successfully attempting a large recruitment drive Duke Tymon Flores had managed to muster an army of 10,000 men and also a few pledges for future support from a portion of Kymuria's Eastern nobility. In a strong enough position to make a move, Tymon decided to seize the city of Vallis. Tymon entered Vallis unopposed and the next day the pretender proclaimed himself King of Kymuria. Shortly thereafter, the only loyalist commander with a sizeable force in the area, Damian Straka, mobilised and prepared to siege Vallis; the Florites however had different plans and instead decided to march out to intercept Straka at the village of Inkiel and early the next morning the Florites handily scattered the Kymurian army in less than 30 minutes. The rebellion was now given serious attention, following Florite success the government in Hokasa sent further shipments of money and weapons from SKL (southern kymurian lands) with for the first time an official recognition of Duke Tymon Florite's right to rule Kymuria. Duke Caxa, commander of the Kymurian army along the southern border, was subsequently recalled from the border along with his 12,000 troops. Florite forces began a full scale invasion of Eastern Kymuria, many noblemen assisted Tymon and often outright sided with him, the invasion of Eastern Kymuria was a considerable achievement, despite the loss of manpower being minimal (due to local support). Morale was high and royalist recruits from the considerable swathes of Eastern Kymuria began organising themselves. Tymon's total force in the region swelled to well over 20,000 armed and trained men. Hokasan-supplied artillery was used to besiege Sarrantos, the strategic key to the reaching Olsra and then even perhaps the resource rich north. An attempted relief force under command of Straka again attempted to relieve Sarrantos but the Florites yet again easily dispersed the reinforcements at the Battle of Sarrantos Plains with a disciplined frontal attack; the siege itself however made little progress due to the stalwart defence by the citizens there. Straka's forces were, to the surprise of both the Florites and Kymurians, largely intact; despite being reduced to just 4,000 men the force still managed to advance and link up with Caxa's new force approaching from the west. Realising he could not seize Sarrantos before the 16,000 strong force under Caxa and Straka arrived, Tymon fell back to Vallis to prepare for the upcoming battle. The Kymurian army entered Sarrantos and both sides halted operations until the weather improved. The Florites received several SKL shipments during the winter but the Kymurian Navy's blockade of the coastline led to shortages in both funding and arms. When Caxa left Sarrantos, Duke Tymon Flores knew that a decisive battle was his best and possibly only option if he wished to best the Kymurians. As well as superior numbers and equipment, Caxa's troops had been intensively drilled winter-long in countering the key Florite offensive tactic of using the speed and momentum of their initial charge to break the enemy line. When successful, Florite forces acheived rapid victories despite their relatively small size but Caxa predicted they could not hope to hold their ground in a protracted fight. Caxa, knowing the desperate and dwindling state of the Florite force, knew that they would have to come to him, Caxa chose a typically steep hill and placed his entire force atop it. The Battle of Talia began when Florite forces arrived at the battlefield and almost instantly began to wade through the stream at the foot of hill. Caxa had constructed numerous redoubts across the stream in hope of slowing the Florite advance. Under fortified sharpshooters fire from within the redoubts, excessive artillery bombardment from the hill and mounted harassment, the Florite army barely made it across the stream, the whole Florite force was practically destroyed in a matter of minutes in a bloody slaughter, unrelenting waves of gallant men attempted to splash and stumble their way to the opposing bank where many of their comrades were clambering over one another to get behind cover. Eventually Duke Tymon himself had to mount his horse and gallop through the red stream and rally the few men not left floating downstream. With their leader forwarding the charge Florite forces, drenched in both water and blood, charged the redoubts. Any semblance of order was lost, the once disciplined columns of Florite men was now a chaotic and unorganised onslaught. Caxa having witnessed his most fierce opponent yet be completely scythed where they stood ordered his men down the hill in order to finish the surviving Florites left holding the redoubts and to pick up any ensigns left floating in the water. The Battle Of Talia was concluded with a suicidal charge by Florite forces out of the captured redoubts, the Florites rather foolishly decided to ascend the hill and engage in a melee with the descending Kymurians, however needless to say most ended up face down on the hillside as they never reached anything remotely close to hand to hand contact. Tymon and most of his personal retinue escaped southwards while an estimated 1,500 survivors managed to assemble at Vallis' Barracks. Tymon Flores ordered them to disband, explaining his reasons in a letter of apology. Much to the disappointment of The Florite Royalists, conservatives and orthodox branches of the Angelican church, Duke Tymon Flores fled Kymuria with his family and lived out the rest of his days in Anjuin. Effects While the Flores family still remains a powerful noble family in Kymuria, Tymon's branch was completely disowned and was also stripped of all landed titles, a memorial was erected for both sides of the conflict in the cities of Vallis and Saffir. In modern day Kymuria the conflict is viewed differently by different groups of people, more liberal leaning men tend to view it as the final defeat of the Eastern noblemen's hegemony over Kymurian politics, men of a more conservative persuasion tend to view the event as the final "hurrah" of the old and traditional Kymuria; both sides however view it as a national tragedy an and unnecessary cost to Kymuria. It is also believed that ever since the rebellion began Cyroth almost immediately knew that the Southern Kymurian Lands (SKL) had to be dealt with in one way or another, this would of course eventually be a precursor to the much more brutal Great Eastern War. Tactics and strategies used by the Florites would later be studied, used and refined by Frenntolic forces who used a mixture of Florite shock and awe tactics alongside various other doctrines to great effect during the Frenntolic rebellion.